**5. Ornamental parterre**

The parterre5 is another interesting element of historic gardens. In Baroque gardens, parterres were usually arranged next to the mansion. Thus, the first (or second) floor of the mansion offered the most beautiful view of the parterre. Parterres featured different colors, materials, and patterns. Their appearance varied throughout the year—to keep up with vegetative seasons, gardeners needed to quickly change the plants. Of course, there were also parterres (mainly Renaissance ones) composed of only box trees, sand (of different colors), and grass. However, in the seventeenth century, parterres that included diverse selection of flowers became more numerous. To allow the flowering pattern to be changed quickly and efficiently (to replace color, height, texture of the plant, etc.), the plants were often planted in pots (pot gardening). Thus, the plants no longer in bloom were easily replaced with the then flowering plants. This kind of gardening practice is still used today except that we do not put the containers into holes in the ground (now we have other materials and techniques), but distribute them in groups on paved surfaces and places where the plant is not in direct contact with the soil (greening of terraces). Thus, we can see that Baroque parterres were already quite dynamic structures which could be adopted to a greater extent in today's cities. The idea that plant species were strictly separated in parterres is not quite correct, as it was a common practice to mix different plants and, in some ways, already follow the perma culture as we know it today. Notably, the eighteenth century, which brought an interest in the natural sciences and the development of botany, brought a different perception of plants and their coexistence. Thus, botanical enthusiasts, such as Baron Erberg in Carniola (a part of the present-day Slovenia), began assembling their flower patterns. The Baron notes in his description of the garden from 1822 that red pelargonium and pink evergreen are a good combination6 even though the difference in height was considerable between the plants at the time (it should be borne in mind that this was a time when pelargonium had only just begun to be cultivated and the plant could then reach 1.5 m in height). Parterres were therefore quite colorful—in terms of color and species. This can also be clearly seen in today's successfully restored gardens, such as the Baroque garden of the Hof manor in Austria. The garden began to emerge after 1725 and was owned by Prince Eugene of Savoy [10]. The idea of renovation was born in 1986, but major works were not completed until 2007 and 2019. Today we can stroll through the representative terraces

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*Historical Gardens as an Inspiration for the Future of Urban Horticultural Gardens*

with the ground floor and water motifs and admire the aforementioned "mixed"

When examining historic gardens, one can also come across mentions of roof gardens. Again, we can think back to the Babylonian structures, where they already had troughs filled with soil and an irrigation system and drainage so successfully constructed that the gardens thrived even in high positions on the skeletons of buildings. The old civilizations favored roof gardens (even the ancient Romans). In the Middle Ages, the interest in them somewhat diminished, but one could still find examples of small gardens consisting of flowerpots or similar containers placed on raised fortifications, monasteries, etc. The interest in roof gardens grew again in the eighteenth century, as enthusiasm for the plant world took over all layers of people, and many had only a window shelf on which they could observe the growth of primula, pelargonium, or perhaps hydrangea. Even the kings suffered from such "botanical" fever, among them the Austrian King Franz I. (1768–1835), who was named *Blumenkaiser* or "the flower emperor" because of his passion for plants [17]. The flower emperor arranged a terrace on the roof of his city castle, which housed plant pots, hotbeds, and even a greenhouse. It was a place where the emperor spent a lot of his time [18]. Today's roof gardens are of course technically advanced and much more common in urban structures. One of the reasons for that lies in various studies proving the positive cooling effect of the environment (especially in cities, where solar radiation is absorbed by roads and buildings and this heat accumulates

We have successfully adopted a lot of knowledge from history—bosquetts have been transformed into green walls, fountains into water jets freely arranged on the surfaces of city squares, and various parterre bordures into mixed (permaculture) gardens. Furthermore, facilities for overwintering delicate plants have also been upgraded. Greenhouses flourished in the time of introduction of non-native species into Europe [19]. In the second half of the eighteenth century, the introduction of alien, exotic fruits onto the tables of the nobility brought even greater diversity of such plants. The always fresh and varied fruits and vegetables on the gentleman's table were among the significant qualities of a higher class. They were a kind of status symbol, and many noblemen arranged greenhouses and other winter facilities for their cultivation. In addition to the well-growing figs, lemons,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90350*

ground floor at the greenhouse (e.g., **Figure 12**).

*The Baroque gardens of Schloss Hof, Austria.*

**6. High above**

**Figure 12.**

in the building material).

**7. Shelter from cold**

<sup>5</sup> Parterre (Fr.) is a surface formed with different patterns, usually arranged close to the residence. The parterre should be located near the castle or mansion, as it is best observed from above (from the piano nobile) to make it easier to understand its ornamental pattern. Augustin-Charles d'Aviler, then Dezallier d'Argenville, and others wrote about parterre patterns. We distinguish between several types of parterre: parterre a l'anglaise (rectangular lawn parterre, sometimes lined with flowers); parterre de broderie (embroidery parterre, adorned with a fine interweaving line resembling embroidery, from 1620 to 1720 it was the more common motif of formal gardens; the pattern consists of low sheared bush, flowers, multicolored pebbles, sand, gravel, and the like); parterre de broderie melee de massifs de gazon or Parterre melee (composed of diverse patterns of grass belts); parterre de compartiment (the pattern consists of bands of grass, bush, and flowers, mainly used in the second half of the eighteenth century; it is similar to embroidered the but parterre only maintains symmetry in the longitudinal and transverse axes); parterre de pieces coupees pour des fleurs (the floral parterre was intended primarily for decoration of smaller garden areas); parterre d'eau (incorporating water surfaces); parterre gazon coupe (shaped lawn belts; used after 1720, it replaced the embroidery parterre) [6, 7].

<sup>6</sup> "… Die Streife sind am gefalligsten, wenn niedere Pflanzen dieselben, und zwar ja nicht gedrangt besezen. Die rothe Pelargonien und *Vinca rosea* sind fur jeden Fall allein hinreichend" [16].

*Historical Gardens as an Inspiration for the Future of Urban Horticultural Gardens DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90350*

**Figure 12.** *The Baroque gardens of Schloss Hof, Austria.*

with the ground floor and water motifs and admire the aforementioned "mixed" ground floor at the greenhouse (e.g., **Figure 12**).
